Healthy Families Celebrates 10 Years

   Daviess-Martin Healthy Families celebrated its 10 year anniversary with a surprise party for program staff.  Launched in 1994, Daviess-Martin Healthy Families was one of the first 12 Healthy Families programs in the state.  Blessed with strong community partners and dedicated staff members, the program has continued to grow since that time.

   During the past year Daviess-Martin Healthy Families reached 215 families, more than 1 out of every 3 births for

Daviess and Martin residents, welcoming the new baby and providing those families with information, encouragement and resources.  The program is designed to support new mothers and fathers in their role as parents, reaching them either prenatally or shortly following a birth.   Services are voluntary and can range from an initial, one-time packet of information to on-going home visits, depending on the family’s needs and preferences.

   Daviess-Martin Healthy Families, with its seven-person staff, is a part of Indiana’s nationally-recognized program.  Indiana is 1 of only 2 states with  a statewide Healthy Families program.  Arizona is the other. Healthy Families programs are required to meet national research-based standards and     undergo intensive internal and external reviews.  Currently, 56 Healthy   Families sites throughout Indiana serve all 92 counties in the state, all with the goal of helping families thrive.  Four Rivers administers the program in Daviess and Martin Counties.

   For more information about Healthy Families, contact Four Rivers Resource Services in Washington at 254-4471.

   The field of disability services lost a champion this summer with the death of Costa Miller.  Costa’s career spanned three decades of extraordinary leadership that earned him the state’s highest honor, the Sagamore of the Wabash, from four different governors for his outstanding contributions to the state of Indiana and to people with disabilities.

 

   Costa was widely known and respected both within Indiana and nationally, and influenced major, positive changes in opportunities for people with disabilities.  Costa served as Executive Director for Indiana Association of Rehabilitation Facilities (INARF) since its inception in 1974 and devoted the last 30 years of his life to its mission of supporting and advocating for agencies such as Four Rivers.  During his career, he also served as chair of the Governor’s Planning Council for People with Disabilities, was appointed to the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities and was asked to sit on numerous other boards, commissions and committees.  “Costa's entire career focused on enabling people with disabilities to have a better life in this world.  Costa's leadership and tireless efforts have had a profound effect on our society,“ said John Hill, chairman of the Indiana Commission on Rehabilitation Services.

 

   Upon news of Costa’s death, words like courage, energy, passionate, giving, servant, wit, wisdom, generous, charisma, inspiration, kindness, example, and friend filled the tributes that poured in from across the state and country.  Family, friends, colleagues and even

sometimes-adversaries reflected on how Costa   balanced strong conviction and determination with warmth and compromise.

 

   Disability advocate Ric Edwards said of the man who had impacted so many lives, “Costa has moved on to a well-deserved rest.  The best way we can honor such a man is to take up his work.  We have been presented  a significant legacy.  We  cannot —we must not— let it die.  I for one would not want to face Costa should we fail.”

 

 

Remembering Costa

Costa’s picture